TLOU: How it Should've Ended
by Darth Cierra
Summary: UPDATED! I hope that I am not the only one who threw a temper tantrum at the turn the insane bastards at Naughty Dog took after Joel and Ellie reached the Fireflies. I am not a good author, in fact I really suck. However I was so pissed off that I simply could not let this epic saga go to hell in a handbasket. So without further ado, I present the true ending of the Last of Us.


The Last of Us: How it Should've Ended

Joel woke to find himself on a narrow hospital bed. Sitting bolt upright, he was greeted with the sight of Marlene sitting in a chair a few feet away. "Welcome to the Fireflies," she said. "Sorry about that. They didn't know who you were." "And Ellie?" he said. "She's alright," said Marlene. "They brought her in." Joel laid his head on the bed and gave a sigh of relief.

"You came all this way," she continued. "How'd you do it?" "Her," he replied. "She fought like hell to get here. Maybe it was meant to be." As he sat up, Marlene rose from the chair and started walking around. "I lost most of my crew crossing the country," she said. "I pretty much lost everything. And then you show up, and somehow we find you just in time to save her." She shook her head in amazement. "Maybe it was meant to be."

Joel got off the bed. "Take me to her." "You don't have to worry about her anymore," she said. "We'll take care-" "I worry," said Joel. "Let me see her please." Marlene looked at him. "You can't. She's being prepped for surgery." "Surgery?" said Joel. "The doctors say the growth inside her has somehow mutated. That's why she's immune. They'll remove it and be able synthesize a cure." Joel was silent for a moment. "Thank God. But I'm still worried." "Joel, I understand," said Marlene. "But whatever you're going through is nothing compared to what I've been through. I knew her since she was born. I promised her mother I would look after her." Joel grabbed her. "Then please, I beg of you, do whatever you can to preserve her life!" Marlene stared at him. "Tell the surgeons to do anything and everything to ensure her survival, I beg of you!" Marlene nodded. "I'll let them know." Joel wasn't finished. "And let me be there with her. Please. I might be able to help. Either way, I want to be with her." The dark-sinned woman looked at him a moment and then nodded. "Alright." "Where is she?" Joel demanded. "Follow me."

As they took the elevator to the floor where the room was, Joel said, "Sorry if I seem paranoid. But I love Ellie. She's my daughter. Not biological but-" "Yeah I know," Marlene said with a smile. "I guess I'm her mother. Maybe we can be a family."

That caught Joel off guard. Raising his eyebrows he said, "Are you serious?" When she didn't answer, he said, "I mean me and Ellie is one thing but... I'm old enough to be your father." "You are NOT!" she said. "You really…" Joel didn't know whether to be flattered or offended. Marlene's smile never wavered. "You're a good man, Joel," she said. "I wouldn't mind." Joel was silent for a moment. "We'll see."

The surgeons were none too pleased about someone sitting in on their operation, but in the end, they grudgingly complied. As he watched them make the first incision, suddenly a loud boom interrupted them. Alarms started blaring, and outside the room, voices shouted. "What's going on?!" said Joel. "We're under attack! said Marlene. The government's found us!" "Oh SHIT!" Joel screamed. "Where's my stuff?!" "I thought you wanted to stay with Ellie," said Marlene. "You stay with her. I'm going to fight the bastards. Where's my stuff?!" "Right this way," said the guard who accompanied them. As he left, Joel glared and pointed at the surgeons and said, "If anything happens to her, I'll have your heads!"

When Joel arrived on the scene things were just as bad as he feared. In addition to a large contingent of infantry, there were also attack helicopters and by far the worst of all, several M1A2 Abrams supertanks. Rocket launchers and other such weapons the Fireflies had managed to make or steal could quite possibly deal with the helicopters, but the Chaplam armor on the tanks had swatted flies bigger than that. As he gunned down wave after wave of enemy troops with his new machine gun, Joel hoped he could somehow manage to find a way to get past it. Or else they would suffer the same fate as Saddam Hussein's crack republican guard.

While the battle raged outside, the team composed of those who had once been top surgeons before the world ended concluded their work. They had succeeded in extracting the growth from Ellie. Now as Marline watched, they were sewing her up. "Doctor," said one of them. "Look at this." "What is it?" the head surgeon said turning. "Her brain waves have ceased." "No!" said Marline, horrified. "She has lost all higher brain function," the nurse continued. "While her heart and lungs are still working without life support, all higher activity has ceased." "No." Marline was sickened and horrified and angry. Helpless, she could only lay her head on Ellie's and sob for what they had lost.

_ Ellie regained consciousness and found herself lying on her back looking up at a blue sky. Climbing to her feet, she saw she was standing in a green field. Over a dozen ethereal figures stood before her. They were dressed in white garments, shining like the sun._

_ Ellie was confused. "Where am I?" she said. "Am I dead?"_

_ One of the figures, a tall man, said to her, "We have been watching you for a long time... by your measure."_

_ As Ellie scanned the figures, she realized that some of them were achingly familiar. "Sam! Henry!" Joy pierced her like a spear in her heart. Henry stood there with his arm around his little brother, both of them looking far happier then they ever had when she'd known them. "And Tess!" She had been an old woman in her late 30s, weary and worn with age, but now she was young and strong again, and where there had once been anger and bitterness in her visage, there was now joy and love. And then Ellie searched for anyone else she might've known. And there stood her heart's desire. Light caught in her raven hair. Glowing skin the color of oiled ebony. Depthless brown eyes and the smile so familiar to her. "Riley! Oh Riley!" She ran forward and collapsed into the arms of her best friend. She drank her in, fed on her, losing herself in the softness of her skin, getting high on her sweet scent. Her head buried in Riley's chest, rubbing up against her, kissing her shoulders and neck over and over as they were drenched in her tears. In between sobs, Ellie babbled incoherently. "Missed you so much… love you so much… killed you… so much pain… oh God…" Riley held her close. "Shhhhhh, I know Ellie, I know. It's okay. I'm here. I love you." Ellie did not know how long she lay in her best friend's arms, but eventually she sat up and said, "Am I dead? Am I-" Riley shook her head. "No, Ellie. No. When you next meet me here, you will have come to stay. But you have a whole life to live before you come here. You are here now so we can heal and make new your broken soul and body, and because there is much you need to know." "Tell me!" said Ellie eagerly. Riley stepped aside. "It is not my place to tell you this." A young girl about Ellie's age stepped forward. Though dressed in quite a different outfit than she was in the photo, Ellie recognized her, and shock and joy crashed down on her like a ton of bricks. "Sarah?!" The girl smiled and opened her arms. "It's good to see you, dear sister." Ellie flung herself into her arms and sobbed just as she had done with Riley. Although she'd never known her, Ellie knew she loved Sarah every bit as much. After they embraced, Sarah looked at her and said, "Time is short. There is much you need to see, and much that you must know." She put her arm around her, and Ellie did the same and walked with Sarah, and listened to the secrets she revealed to her._

Joel wiped the sweat from his brow. They had killed many soldiers and had even managed to use heavy weapons to shoot down all the helicopters, but now the enemy was bringing up the tanks. As the tanks began to wreak havoc on them, the Fireflies used the last of their heavy weapons, but they had no effect on the gleaming Chaplam armor. Quickly they were forced to give ground, until soon they were driven back to the very doors of the building itself. Grimly, Joel and his allies prepared for their last stand. At least they could buy the rest of the Fireflies time to escape along with Ellie and the cure.

_ Ellie learned many things from Sarah and Riley, and had also talked to other people, including her biological parents. At first she was ashamed that she didn't really feel much for them like she did for Joel and Marlene. But they assured her it was normal, and that there would be plenty of time to get to know them when they next met. Now, after several hours, the time for Ellie to leave had arrived. She had seen all she needed to see and learned all she needed to learn. As she lay down and bid goodbye to the people she loved she was sad, but not heartbroken, for she knew she would see them again one day. "We cannot linger any longer," said Sarah. "Outside, the Fireflies are under attack. The government has found them. The battle goes badly. You must return and make haste to the armory to equip yourself and join the fight." "Thank you," said Ellie. "And goodbye!" Then everything faded away and darkness took her..._

Ellie regained consciousness and leapt to her feet, shoving the completely shocked Marlene off her. "Where's the armory?!" She yelled harshly. Marlene stared. "Ellie, you're…" "WHERE THE HECK IS THAT ARMORY?!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. Shaking off her shock and bewilderment, Marlene said, "This way."

As Ellie and her mother geared up, Marlene said, "The real trouble for us is those tanks. No conventional weapon can pierce their armor. However, many of the world's surviving scientists and engineers have joined us, and they have NOT been sitting on their asses drinking port for the past two decades." She reached over and pulled out unusual firearms Ellie had never seen before and gave one to her. "These have never been field-tested but they just might work." Together they ran out to join the fight.

The last of their heavy weapons had managed to slow the Abrams supertanks but not stop them, and it seemed as though nothing would work. "Hell, we all gotta die one day," he said to himself. "At least I'm dying for the people I love."

Suddenly what looked like a large bold of crackling energy went past his ear. Slamming into the nearest tank, it caused some sort of electric effect that reminded him of the scene in the fifth Star Wars movie where the huge ion cannon disabled a star destroyer. Whatever it was, it seemed to have the same effect. The tank stopped moving and ground to a halt. Even the turret stopped rotating. After a moment the crew emerged and were quickly cut down by the Fireflies. Joel saw that more shots were rapidly disabling the other tanks in short order. He turned and saw to his utter amazement: "Ellie?!" It was Ellie, now dressed in clean clothes underneath Kevlar armor and other military gear. In her arms she held a strange-looking firearm that Joel had never seen before. Beside her was Marlene, also decked out in military surplus and bearing an identical weapon. Ellie ignored Joel however, instead speaking to the enemies she slaughtered with a conventional weapon she had switched to. "End of the line, vermin!"

The Fireflies rallied and pushed the enemy back. Those few that tried to run were overtaken by Firefly forces and eradicated. Not a single soldier ever made it back to report what had transpired.

In the aftermath of the battle, Joel confronted Ellie and Marlene about their mysterious weapons. "We call them ion cannons," she said. "Ion cannons?!" Joel said incredulously. "Our scientists drummed them up inspired by the ones in Star Wars." Joel grinned. "Never a Death Star when you need one," he said.

As they chatted throughout the day, Ellie told Joel about her best friend Riley, and how she had been forced to kill her when they both got infected. Marlene wanted to know what they'd been through since last they met, and when Ellie told her, she was amazed at her courage and strength. She also admired Joel's devotion to her. After they talked, Marlene wrapped her arms around Joel's neck and kissed him. Ellie looked on and grinned from ear to ear.

That night, Joel climbed into a warm, king-sized bed, and Ellie lay down beside him. Then, very quietly, she told him what had transpired during the operation. And finally, at long last, the old, old grief that had lain on him for the past two decades melted away. He wept and held her close, and for the first time called her his daughter. And for the first time, Ellie called him her father. "During the time I was with her, she told me many things, some of which I will speak later," she said. "But the one experience for me that was not wonderful was watching what happened all those years ago. I had to see it as though I was watching a movie, but it was far more real than that. It was everything, Daddy," she said, and horror crept through him at her words. "Everything from the moment you came home and she gave you that watch, when she dropped off to sleep and you carried her to her bed, when she awoke from the phone ringing and it was your brother frantically calling, when she went downstairs and you arrived back home, when the three of you drove off into the city, when you witnessed the horror firsthand, and when she was shot by an asshole who didn't have the spine of Field Marshal von Paulus. I saw everything. I watched her die in your arms, and I watched the man you were then die with her."

Joel wept again and held her close. "I'm so sorry you had to see that baby." "It's okay, Daddy," said Ellie. "It was hard, but I'm glad I saw it, cuz now I understand." "As do I," said a familiar voice. Startled, Joel and Ellie watched as Marlene emerged from the shadows. Joel blushed to see she was clad only in her underwear. "You been here this whole time?" "Pretty much," she replied. "I heard everything she told you," she said as she lay down at Joel's side, with Ellie in between them. "I was traumatized by what I had witnessed," Ellie said. "And I cried for a long time after that, while Sarah held me and comforted me. I expressed how horrible it was to end that way for her. She scoffed and said it wasn't the end. She said 'look at me! I'm here. I'm alright. And I'm far happier than I ever could've been had I survived. Yes it hurt our father deeply to watch me die, but it might've been less so had he known what was happening at my end.' And then she described in detail what it felt like." "And what did it feel like?" asked Joel. Ellie smiled. "She said she died of internal bleeding from her wounds. She felt drowsy for a moment and then lost consciousness. And then seemed to her, and this is exactly how she described it, the grey rain curtain of this world-" "Oh god!" said Joel, burying his head in Ellie's chest and sobbing while she continued.

"-turned to silver glass and was rolled back, and-" "No more," said Joel still crying. "No more. I know what she saw after that." "What?" said Marlene. "What did she see?" Ellie's smile widened as Joel barely choked out, "White shores. And beyond... a far green country under a swift sunrise." Marlene smiled. "Well, that isn't so bad." "No," said Ellie. "No it isn't."

Joel lifted his head and smiled. "I can hardly believe it," he said. "Who could've thought I would ever build a new life on the rubble of the old. I lost my home, and I have found it again. I have a new daughter and a wonderful woman to be my wife." "Looks like we really are a family," said Ellie. "Yes we are baby," said Joel holding her close. "Yes we are." They shared kisses, cuddles, and caresses for several minutes until Ellie fell asleep in Joel's arms. She slept well. It felt good to be in the arms of one who truly loved her.

_And He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more sorrow, no more pain, and no more suffering. _

_And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death._

_Revelation 21:4_


End file.
